Despite two prior court rulings on Amendment 3 ballot language, the “No on 3” campaign notes this week that “false and misleading ballot language for Amendment 3 was distributed to voters in Buchanan, Madison and Vernon Counties on Tuesday, September 22.”

The group asserts the two separate courts found “the politicians behind Amendment 3 broke the law with the dishonest way they attempted to summarize the fine print of their gerrymandering plan.”

The group is sharing this information as voters will be asked to vote on the amendment on Nov. 3. Voters have previously approved an amendment addressing these issues. Republican party faithful on Saturday were told by a county GOP leader this was a “fix” to the prior vote.

Here are some thoughts on the proposed amendment — which has been pitched as a means to correct what 62 percent of Missouri voters previously established by vote as their preference for legislating campaign contribution limits and the processs for establishing district boundaries following the 2020 census.

“We all know Amendment 3 was designed to trick voters,” said Dr. Jane Frick, a St. Joseph voter. “But two courts have ruled that the politicians behind this scheme broke the law with their lies. Voters need to look into the fine print, and send a message to the politicians trying to trick us by voting no on Amendment 3.”

“Voters need to know how politicians are trying to trick them into passing Amendment 3,” said Sean Soendker Nicholson, campaign director for the “No on 3” campaign. “The amendment only changes lobbyist gift limits by $5, and only changes contribution limits by $100. That’s not reform — that’s a smokescreen to distract voters from the real goal of the plan, which is letting lobbyists and political operatives draw district maps to protect their favorite politicians.”

“The original sin here was committed by the politicians who designed Amendment 3 to trick voters, so we need to make sure voters have accurate information about what is in the fine print of Amendment 3 straight away,” said Chuck Hatfield, attorney for the “No on 3” campaign. “The ballots need to be fixed immediately, and the voters who were given ballots with inaccurate information need to be notified about the false information they were given.”

The “No on 3” campaign noted the “illegal ballot language was originally written by politicians with the intent to trick voters on how the amendment would draw district maps. Two courts ruled that the politicians’ language broke the law because it gave voters false information about what is in the fine print of Amendment 3. The second and final ruling from the Western District Court of Appeals, ordered new language to appear on all ballots.

“The No on 3 campaign discovered the errors after voters reported seeing the incorrect language on their ballots. The campaign is working collaboratively with local election officials to inform voters about how the politicians attempted to trick them, and to resolve the isolated errors.”